My Mosrite MkII clone!

[moscarabino]

Let's see, first of all, neck pickup I can't really remember wires colours, I'll take off pickguard tomorrow and I'll tell you (don't have my screwdrivers here) also I can take some pics of them too, bridge one (FS-1) has two white, and two black wires, (I don't really understand what you mean with the inside pickup, sorry about my ignorance) I have a .05 uF cap, 60 VOLTS, I don't really know if i need a 220V or if it's right with the 60V one.
The switchcraft is a 3 way one, just like this http://www.allparts.com/Korean-Toggle-S ... 66-000.htm , but I'll be buying a DiMarzio LP model, just like this one http://www.jadenroseguitars.com/store/i ... 00x500.jpg
Your diagram is very helpful just like you! thanks again for your time and I think after this I'll be a little bit less annoying!

[moscarabino]

the miniham wires are four, red, white, yellow and one without insulation.

Here's a pic, the yellow wire, is disconnected, I think maybe red is ground.
Other thing is that the fatstrat that I've now (I didn't change it yet) has only two wires, and like I tell you before, the new one has four (two white and two black)

the wire in my hand is the one that goes to the miniham. (switchcraft is awful, I promisse I'm gonna change it! LOL

[oipunkguy]

the capacitor you have is fine. don't worry about the voltage reading, just the uF reading. a .o5uF is more or less the same thing as a .047uF cap. all the cap does is filter out the treble tone in your signal. that's why when you turn the tone down your signal get more bassy. if you were to use a .100uf cap for example your signal would sound twice as bassy with the tone knob set at 0 then it does using a .05uf cap. a typical les paul uses a.022uf cap, and these have less bass then what you have.

generally speaking when you have two wires inside one cable (this is called a two conductor cable) always the inner wire is the hot signal, while the outer wire is the ground. you said you have three wires coming from the FS-1? if two wires are black and one is white, chances are the two black wires are ground and the white wire is hot. if you have a multimeter it would be helpful. if you have one, set the meter to DC ohms and hook the white wire of the pickup to your red cable on the meter and the black wire(s) of the pickup to your black cable on the meter. if this pickup is a generic fs-1 like what came in my mosrite mkII then the pickup should read in the 5k ohm range. if you hook it up and your reading gives you a negative reading like -5k for example, then you know you have the hot wire and ground reversed on the pickup, and therefore the black wire would be your hot and the white would be ground.

Personally I never liked using a strat style pickup in the markii anyway. these pickups where meant for a guitar similar to strats and the markii have a deeper neck angle, therefore it's impossible to set the pickup at the correct height, even if you remove the springs and rise the pickup the highest it will go. Also, just so you know the generic FS-1 fat strat pickup doesn't sound anything like the real ones. the real dimarizo FS-1 read at 14k ohm, which is by leaps and bounds hotter in output.

the Korean toggle is garage, get rid of it as soon as you can, the normal three way toggle is also made by swiftcraft, but is far better quality. switchcraft makes great products they have been in guitars from the beginning, and it's all I've ever seen in a old mosrite, gibson, fender, etc. generally speaking, the biggest cost difference in high quality guitars and cheap guitars is the quality of it's parts, and this is where a lot of companies cheap out now a days.

[oipunkguy]

Here's a pic, the yellow wire, is disconnected, I think maybe red is ground.

whatever wires that is soldered to the side of the box, where there's metal, will be ground. and remember to hook up the wire that comes out of the stopbar stud, this is the guitar ground. If you don't hook up this wire you will have an excessive about of background hum.

[moscarabino]

you said you have three wires coming from the FS-1?

No, there are four wires coming from de FS-1, two white wires, and two black wires, I asume black are ground, but I will check it out whit my voltimeter.

I can't even think how to thank you all the information man! I've learned a lot in a few days and I'm closer to get the sound I've been looking for, here in Argentina it's not very easy because REAL mosrites doesn't exist here, just very few guys have one, and information it's not everywhere, when I found this forum I got very happy, you've saved me, I'll try to do everything and when it's finished, I'll show you the results! If I have some trouble maybe I will ask you again, but so far you've been great, thank you so much for everything, most of all your time and knowledge!

[oipunkguy]

You're welcome, and I would encourage you to spend some time reading this forum. There is a wealth of information on here about Mosrite, and guitars in general. Also I would recommend that you pick up this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Rep ... 0879302917
it's will give you all sorts of information from doing things as simple as care maintenance, to setups, and more advance things like finishing and pickup winding.

On the FS-1 pickup. If it has 4 wires, then this is actually a humbucking pickup. Dimarzio makes a a couple different zero hum single coils (humbucking), although Dimarzio is not the only company that has. Each white and black wire is the start and finish of each coil. the only thing that may be confusing which is which. here's how to figure it out. separate one white wire and one black wire from the other two. check them with your meter. white wire on the red cable and black wire on the black cable like I mention before. If you get a positive K ohm reading then you have isolated one of the two coils, if you don't get a reading, then you haven't. so then switch the two black wires. you should then get a reading. Now just make sure and check the other white and black wires. you should get a reading.

Now for the more confusing part, but just bare with me. if we now know the white wires are the start (or positive) and the black wires are the finish (or ground) the next question is how to hook them up. you can hook them up generally in two different ways. parallel or in series. parallel will give you less output and a more twangy tone. In series will give you more output and a higher bass response. most people prefer in series but I will show you how to do either.

less just assume each of the coils you checked with your meter is rated at 5k ohms. If you hook up both white wires (again assuming these are in deed your positive) together and both black wires together, this will give you the pickup wired in parallel. To know for sure hook both white wires together to the red cable on your meter and both black wires to the black cable on your meter. the reading then should be half of what each coil read originally. So if each coils is 5k ohms, then both coils together will be 2.5k ohms. low output, probably not the tone you want.

to hook the pickup in series can be a little confusing, but bare with me. the finish of one coil (black) must be twisted together to the start of the other coil (white). what this will do is combine the strength of the two coils together. once you have one white wire and one black wire twisted together, then hook up the remaining white wire to the red cable on the meter and the remaining black wire to the black cable on your meter, the twisted pair not touching anything. If you have it hooked up correctly then your reading should be 10k ohms. much more output, thicker tone. when you install the pickup again, solder the twisted pair together and then put small piece of tape or heat shrink tubing over the exposed part of those cables so it cannot touch any of the other electronics. then just hook up the white wire to the positive on your diagram, the black wire with the ground, (typically the bottom of the volume and/or tone pot)

hopefully that made sense to you, it sometimes confused me up until I began making my own pickups, so you're not alone.

good luck!

[moscarabino]

Aaron, you're really great, now with this logic explanation, I've understand really well, in fact I work with "electric power" but in hugher ranges, nothing to do with electronics, but with this you're telling me I'll have no problem to found wich wire is each , all this, plus all your other help, and your diagram, I'll be able to found the sound I need!
The other day when you mention that the FS-1 are not like they were before (that's obviusly truth), I was kinda sad, I couldn't find it anywhere for 3 months, and four days ago, there he was, waiting for me in a music store, but well I think with 10 omhs on my pickup, and the correct wiring, I'll be fine, it's a lot more than I had and I think we will be a good couple

Thank you very much for your help! I'm really learning about guitars here, I've been already watching the forum, but I'll keep reading because in each corner there are plenty of information and beautiful guitars to admire. See you around buddy! I'll show you the results when I finish.

Mosca.

[zarfnober]

One more thing, Johnny had his tone knob rewired for all treble.

Rocco

[zarfnober]

and another thing while we're on the subject of Johnny's guitar; get a pickup from hallmark for the bridge, you'll be much closer to the sound. I read an interview with Johnny stating he used the fat strat "because it sounded most like the original pickup". the biggest difference in Johnnys sound was when he got his original Marshalls with greenbacks stolen and went with the newer cabs with different speakers. Totally different sound, along with the JCM 800 amp, but the greenbacks were the sound.

Rocco

[oipunkguy]

One more thing, Johnny had his tone knob rewired for all treble.

wow Rocco, this is the first I've heard this. if you make a cap to be all treble, then to me that sounds like the cap was removed from the circuit. Or do you mean he just removed the entire tone knob itself out of the circuit? If so, that would explain why semie designed the ramones model for him with just the one volume knob.
and yes you're right the greenbacks were awesome. The live recordings i heard of the Ramones during the eighties didn't sound as good to my ear, but got better when he started using jcm 900's.
Rocco, do you know if John used the 30 watt blackbacks? they would have be a popular choice in the mid to late 70's and I prefer these over the 25 watt versions.